Appeared in 1566, the term "naturalization" was imposed during the nineteenth century to designate the attribution of French nationality to foreigners who requested it. After an often long procedure, and if it met the criteria of obtaining defined at the time of its request, any foreigner, essentially European in the XIXe century, could be granted by decree the French nationality or, in the case of a French born abroad, his reinstatement in French nationality.

These decrees, published in the Bulletin of the Laws (precursor of the Official Journal of the French Republic), formalized this attribution, but could also mean the repudiation (in the case where a French citizen lost his French nationality, having asked for and obtained the nationality of another country) or the reintegration of the naturalized.

• Bulletin of the Laws

Numerical nominative compilation of more than 265,000 naturalization decrees published in the 19th century